Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Has Social Media Been Good For Poetry?

My anecdotal psychological insight into this is that Facebook and social media has made younger people generally better poets than they used to be, and the reason why is that now it becomes a thing that people just know how to do without being told how to do it: How to materialize the self. The function that poets often engage in to where your speaking self as a poet is a kind of materialization of an aspect of your personality. It’s not you, but a version of you. And good version of you. One where you’re more articulate, more on point, one where you’re more perceptive. Your Facebook is like that. It’s a materialization of who you are.

Your sarcasm, if I may call it such, is specious in the extreme, if not worrisome. McGimpsey is very clearly gesturing to the lyrical practice of constructing a "self-in-writing." And his remarks seem to me (perhaps this is where we diverge) _a reader of poetry_ , pellucid and astute. Silly you indeed.